AggroCast Resurrected — GenghisCon 45 [Episode Three]

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It’s alive…

It’s alive…!

AggroCast RESURRECTED!!!

Raymond Bruels: Hi, welcome to the AggroCast. This is Raymond with ‘David Hades’ Becker. And today we’re gonna talk about GenghisCon 45 in Denver, Colorado. I, full disclosure, used to live in Colorado with my partner, Juliet, and we had gone to GenghisCon for a number of years. And we know Donny and Andrea, the folks that run the convention. We know a lot of the mainstays who are always there running content. But we decided to invite David and Ike. We’re like, guys, you should come out. It’s a great convention. Arguably, you could say it’s even a national convention given the fact that it’s been running for 45 years. It was a great time. And so we’re gonna kind of go over that. That was your first time at GenghisCon.

David Hades Becker: It was, and I’d like to say, you know, un-thank you for taking me out to negative 10 degrees. That’s how cold it was when I first got out there. My beard froze. But other than that, the rest of the convention was a good time, so I didn’t have to leave.

RB: Well, and they had a lot of different games and content. I know we spent a lot of time playing D&D with the Adventures League. That has always been a mainstay because my buddy, Michael McGovern, who runs S.C.A.L.E., which is the organization that, I think it’s Southern Colorado Adventures League Events. They run Adventures League for GenghisCon and a bunch of the other conventions in Colorado, and I think even maybe Wyoming at one point. Michael was in the hospital. We wanted to go and get the full experience. We’ve been running Adventures League here in Las Vegas. And so that was a great time, to be able to sit down at the table and play through some of that.

DHB: Oh, yeah, not just one table. There was, what, 15 tables just for D&D 5E and only for Adventures League as well. If I remember correctly, there was multiple other rooms, not only just running other games, but other D&D games as well.

RB: Yeah, well, and then you got to play through an Epic.

DHB: Yes, I did get to play through an Epic, and that was an experience I’ve never gone through before. I mean, I’ve never been to an actual tabletop gaming convention before. But the Epic was something I’ve heard about and was always interested in seeing… For those who don’t know, at least from my experience, Epic is, everybody’s kind of running their own table, but all of it builds into one massive story. And depending on how well individual tables do is how well the overall story goes. And we also came out on top.

RB: Which was really, really strange.

DHB: It shouldn’t have happened.

RB: Given what our table compliment was, because we had three kobolds.

DHB: Oh yeah, three kobolds, because one person changed from a kobold, yeah.

RB: Yeah, because I-

DHB: No, we had four kobolds.

RB: Four kobolds, because you, me, Juliet, and Ike. And then we had our buddy that was playing the dwarf. And then we had Coach, the human paladin.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: And yeah, kobolds were ridiculous.

DHB: And somehow we won out everything else. We saved the day.

RB: Yeah, it was great. But yeah, so it was a fun convention. It started on Thursday with GooeyCube, and they do kind of an event around that. Which if you’ve never looked at GooeyCube, totally recommend taking a look at that. It’s self-contained, fifth edition content with picture cards and item cards and maps and everything that you need to run a quality game.

DHB: If you’ve never run before.

RB: Yeah, and we actually had an opportunity to speak with the son of the gentleman who goes by Alphineus Goo. And we’re hoping down the road to possibly do an interview with either Ken, who is Alphineus, or his son, who is just really entertaining. But while we were out there, we also did a bunch of interviews because we know a lot of the content creators in the Colorado area. So at some point, we’re gonna post some excerpts from, as well as the full content for the interview with Mobius Worlds Publishing. That was Jennifer Sheinfeld and Corey Williamson, the CEO and COO. We also spoke with Bill ‘The Bunny’ Keys, who has a setting for Prowlers and Paragons that is a really awesome, gritty superhero setting. We also spoke with Michael ‘The Professor’ Surbrook about his upcoming Well of the World setting for Prowlers and Paragons. And then we sat down with Ross Watson, who is an amazing game creator who has done a ton of work, both for Warhammer 40K RPGs, for the Rift Savage Worlds conversion, just so much stuff. But he’s working with Star Anvil. There’s also work that he’s doing on the Secret World RPG. So you’ll get to hear about that in the interview that we did with Ross. We were hoping to catch Donnie and Andrea, but they were, of course, they were running around, running the convention and doing an amazing job.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: One of the things that they offer is a V.I.G., which is a Very Important Gamer. Which you get a really awesome lanyard, as well as a swag bag, which I’m using for my aggrocast to carry all the equipment.

DHB: Yeah, I kind of feel bad I didn’t go in as a V.I.G. because I watched everybody walking away with the bags and I was like, man, I want that bag.

RB: Yeah, they really outdid themselves. And even the t-shirts.

DHB: They had special dice specifically for the very important gamers and then kind of like the plebeian dice that they gave out.

RB: Well, and they also had the tumbler. So it’s a lot of quality stuff that you normally see at conventions like Origins or Gen Con that they really upped the game. So if you ever have an opportunity, I definitely recommend checking out GenghisCon. I remember back in the day, and I can even, I can pull them out. I’ve got Dragon Magazines where there were advertisements a long time ago with listings of conventions and GenghisCon was on there. And I know that California, I’m not exactly sure where they have KublaCon.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: And I think that, I don’t know if they’re working in tandem, but I did see advertisements there at the show. And-

DHB: They had one for, was it Phoenix Khan is another one that looked like it was in Wyoming.

RB: Yeah, maybe.

DHB: Well, I remember it was somewhere not in Arizona. Cause I remember seeing Phoenix Khan, I was like, oh, I can go down and see my sis. Oh wait, no, it’s not in actual Arizona. It’s just the name.

RB: Well, I know Donny and Andrea also do TactiCon. Which in times past was more of a war gaming, but I think it’s kind of a everything convention these days. And it’s going to be an amazing experience. That’s not one I’m going to be able to make it out to, but that’s another one I always recommend folks check out because even though Colorado has snow…

DHB: Uhh…

RB: which we here in Las Vegas, we love the heat. The snow was a bit much and of course it got better as we were getting ready to leave.

DHB: Yeah, exactly. But speaking of amazing experiences, you got to sit down and play a D&D session with the son of the man himself.

RB: Luke Gygax. Yeah, Juliet and I had the opportunity. We, Swole Gax is what we were calling him. Because this gentleman is just mighty. His arms are huge. His chest is huge. I’m like, okay, that’s some goals. I just got back into the gym. I’m like, okay, I got to do some work because holy cow, Luke had some guns. There’s a picture of me actually that Juliet took where he was showing off the gun show. But I tell you, sitting down with the son of Gary Gygax and playing D&D, it was fifth edition, but it was still D&D with a table of folks and it was a paid experience. So we paid a little extra for it. It was such a great game because everybody there was, basically they had brought their A-game. They were there to have a great time. And this isn’t the slight other tables we were at, but it definitely shone through at Luke’s table. And Luke was a really good game master. Now, of course, he talks about it. He’s got gaming in his blood. And so, you know, it’s not that I walked in with certain expectations. He really, he did a great job. And of course, Juliet being the amazing role player she is, when he called for who is the most entertaining player at the table, everybody kind of pointed at her and she got an autographed copy of the adventure that he ran. So if you have an opportunity, Luke Gygax, if you can get into his table, definitely recommend it. He runs GaryCon, which was a convention that honors his father. We actually got to hear about it when we sat down at his table. Originally, it was kind of a celebration of life for his dad and a lot of folks getting together, playing games, and it just grew into this amazing experience that everybody participates in. So that’s something I hope to hit. Of course, it’s at the end of March, so it’s not something we can do this year, but maybe next year.

DHB: Yeah, we just gotta plan ahead.

RB: Yeah, yeah, you know, the whole planning thing. So the Luke Gygax experience was great, playing Adventures League with a bunch of friends. I know Ike got to play in a aliens game, which he had a lot of thoughts on that.

DHB: Aliens based on the horror franchise, the movie franchise, not just random aliens out there.

RB: Yeah, it’s not like, you know, the-

DHB: The H.R. Giger type aliens.

RB: Yeah, it’s not Alan Tudyk sitting at the table.

DHB: Yeah, that would be amazing.

RB: Yeah, that would be amazing. That’s a guy I would love to play D&D with.

DHB: If you’re listening, Alan Tudyk, we would not mind to have you here.

RB: We have a whole list of people. I would also add Jack Black.

DHB: Yes.

RB: Because that would be amazing. Make Jack Black play a bard. Yeah, so we got to do that. In the dealer room, the dealer room was really awesome. I got to pick up a copy of Pirate Borg, which the gentleman who wrote that actually lives in the Colorado area. My hope is that I can hit him up for an interview so we can talk about Pirate Borg. And that’s one of the games that we were talking about doing a playthrough.

DHB: Yes.

RB: On Discord, maybe we’ll try to rope Frank Hartgrave into it and do some fun times. If you haven’t checked out Mork Borg, I definitely, definitely recommend. Borg is amazing. The game is a fun OSR, old school role play game, which there’s a lot of those out there, but this one really has a great feel and vibe.

DHB: That’s the heavy metal themed?

RB: Oh yeah, it’s like death metal.

DHB: In there, yeah.

RB: They talk about like after the game ends, you’re supposed to go out and burn the book. And we know a fella here in town, Tyler, who’s actually done that. There’s a picture of him like in corpse pain, burning the book. And this one, Pirate Borg, they actually talk about when the game’s over, you’re supposed to throw it in the sea. So every one of them has that kind of aspect to it, even like Cy-Borg and some of the others. It’s just great. And I love, I love the art. It’s amazing. So I got to pick up a copy of that when we were in the dealer room. There’s a candle company that Juliet loves. And every year she buys candles from them.

DHB: Well, there was also the Dice and Gaming one that we went to, and they said they were having issues because of COVID or whatever. But I mean, it was a local shop, right?

RB: Yeah, oh, that was, Lair of Abraxas was originally kind of a tavern, but they had started making dice and then they really have focused down into making dice. It’s a company I recommend, Hollywood of Locals.

DHB: Well, it’s more to turn that into, you could also see how GenghisCon is trying to help prop them back up. Well, yeah. Because they had their own little space in the vendor hall as well.

RB: Well, and that’s the great thing. Donny and Andrea really try to help support local folks, giving them space, giving them opportunity. But they also, they have brought other artists in, like Derek Stevens is a fellow that I met last year who done a couple of art pieces for us that we’re gonna put on t-shirts because they’re just super cool.

DHB: That’s the one I got my Cerberus picture from?

RB: No, that was Sumro.

DHB: Oh, yeah.

RB: Yeah, Sumro is another gentleman that I’m hoping we can catch an interview with because he works for Chaosium.

DHB: Yeah, well, he also, we can’t talk about what he showed, but he showed some stuff, other things that are coming down the pipeline and that looks so cool.

RB: And I met him years ago at, I think, Starfest because he had this zombie donut and he actually had a picture as well as a sculpture of this zombie donut. And then I picked up a Comics Code t-shirt, which at some point, we’ll probably talk about that, maybe when Jules is here, because she’s a huge comic book fan too. Yeah, I was glad to reconnect with him and then David was looking at his table and there’s this amazing picture of Cerberus.

DHB: Yeah, and I think you were trying to do an interview and I was already pulling my card out, I was like, you sucked me in, I got this.

RB: Yeah, because folks that don’t know, one of David’s dogs’ name is Cerberus.

DHB: We’ll have to have him on at some point.

RB: Yeah, yeah, he’s highly excitable.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: Yeah, so it was just a really great experience. We had a great chance to reconnect with a lot of our Colorado friends. Got to introduce folks to David and Ike and they got to meet, one of the people that were out there was Jarvis and Kelly, which are old, not old. Jarvis is an old friend of mine. Kelly is his wife, I’ve only recently met.

DHB: Long time friends.

RB: Long time friends. But Jarvis was one of my first Game Masters when we lived in Berlin as, you know, I was an Air Force brat and Jarvis’ dad worked for the Department of Defense Schools. So it was really great. Of course, they moved to Colorado as I was leaving to come to Vegas, but that’s just how it always goes.

DHB: To highlight even further, it also kind of shows how the gaming space by itself, like you get to go to these conventions where most people have that, you see the stereotypical nerd wearing just all sweatpants or whatever, but as we’ve been talking, everybody from every walk of life is here. So that’s another thing it seems like GenghisCon is highlighting as well. Yeah, you’re gonna have your stereotypes, but you’re also gonna have the Swole Gax out there. You’re gonna have people who work these different jobs you would never expect to be in. So it’s kind of interesting to get to meet those kind of people out there.

RB: Yeah, and one, we had a couple of cosplayers.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: And yeah, it’s just a really great experience and I’m glad that you were able to come out and share that with us.

DHB: I was glad to as well, minus the snow.

RB: Yeah. So after having done that, would you go to a gaming convention again?

DHB: Oh yeah, definitely.

RB: Were there any games that you hoped to play that you didn’t have an opportunity?

DHB: I kind of want to check out Pathfinder 2nd Edition because I’ve never played any of that. I would have been interested to see how Alien or Blade Runner played because I’ve talked to the people who’ve made those games, but I’ve never actually got to sit down and play them. I also would have loved to play Mork Borg or Pirate Borg, but I think they were just out there selling it, not specifically playing it.

RB: Well, and that’s Free Press (Free League) that does Aliens, Blade Runner. They just, they have a whole new…

DHB: Yeah, Mutant Year Zero. They’re doing the Walking Dead game. The other one that I think I mentioned in the past, like an 80s, kind of like a Stranger Things, but not Stranger Things.

RB: Kids on Bikes.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: So yeah, it was great to see them there because that was the first time I’d ever seen them out there as well. But the dealer room was always a surprise as to who you’re going to see there. So I tip my hat to Donny and Andrea and I thank them for an amazing experience as well as their team, because they’ve got a whole group of folks that support them in putting on this amazing convention. I’m really glad, again, that you were able to share that with us.

DHB: And thank you for letting me see that little slice of your history.

RB: Well, it’s those things that help build the community and really bring us all together as friends. And stay tuned for those interviews with Mobius Worlds Publishing, as well as with Ross Watson. We’ll catch you next week.

Thank you for listening to the Aggrocast resurrected, the official podcast of AggroGamer. For more gaming news and reviews, please check us out at aggrogamer.com. If you enjoyed today’s content, follow and subscribe to get notifications of our next episodes.

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